140 THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 



celebrated observations. He saw these ants collect on 

 bright days on top of their hills and behave in a way 

 that he could only describe as regular ring games. They 

 rose on their hind legs, seized each other with fore- 

 feet, feelers, and jaws, and actually wrestled, all in quite 

 friendly fashion. When one gained the ascendency she 

 would seize all the rest, one by one, and throw them 

 over in a pile like skittles. Then she dragged them 

 about in her jaws." This description of Huber's was 

 published in many popular papers, but won little cre- 

 dence from the reading public. " Indeed, I myself," says 

 Forel, "found it hard to believe, in spite of the accu- 

 racy with which Huber recorded his observations, until 

 I saw it myself." A colony of Pratensis gave him this 

 opportunity as he approached them carefully. The 

 wrestlers seized one another with feet and jaws, rolled 

 together to the ground, just as playful urchins like to 

 do, pulled each other into their holes only to come out 

 and begin over again. All this was apparently done 

 without anger or spiteful feeling; it was clear that they 

 were actuated only by a spirit of friendly rivalry.* Sup- 

 posing that this is all play,f an admission that I am not 

 altogether prepared to make, there is, of course, no con- 

 nection with courtship. " I can understand," says 

 Forel, " that it must appear all the more incredible to 

 those who have not seen it, when they reflect that sex- 

 ual instinct can have nothing to do with this play." 

 The mock fights of ants must then be entirely for prac- 

 tice preparatory to their unusually quarrelsome and 

 predatory way of living. J Notwithstanding, I must hold 



* A. Forel, Les fourmis de la Suisse, 1874. 

 f BUchner, Aus dem Geistesleben der Thiere, pp. 196, 220. 

 \ McCook and Bates also have observations on the play of ants. 

 See Romanes, Animal Intelligence, p. 88. 



